Rybka 4 or Fritz 12?

     Hey guys, I've been "second thinking" about buying Fritz 12 or not. I researched online a bit and it says Rybka 4 is a world titled chess engine. Is that true and is that enough to change your mind about buying a different chess engine?

     It would be great if I knew the features of Rybka 4. It gives you the best  move(s) in each continuation, right? Is it the same as Fritz 12? If so, then why buy Rybka 4 as polls show? Also, on Amazon, Fritz 12 is:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B003B2MLDI/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new ($20)

and Rybka 4 is:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/3866811780/ref=sr_1_1_olp?s=software&ie=UTF8&qid=1299386204&sr=1-1&condition=new ($50)

     On the Fritz 12 it says Windows Games and Chess Playing Software on the cover. Does that mean the only feature of that is playing against the computer because it is much cheaper than the other chess engines?

     I want to buy a chess engine that would work well with a fairly decent price.

     Thanks to any help!

I don't like downloading.

Fritz12 includes the Fritz12 (chessbase) GUI and the the Fritz12 engine. Rybka4 is just the engine (unless Aquarium is included and I just didn't notice). Rybka4 is a superior engine in terms of playing strength - what do you want to use the engine for? If you simply want to play against the computer, unless you're a GM you probably won't notice any difference in playing strength between the 2. People who know better than me recommend Hiarcs and/or Houdini for analysing games over Rybka4 (both are free, I think). Fritz12 is worth getting for the GUI.

I have Fritz 12 and it's great. Everything is opinion. If you feel like getting Rybka, by all means get it. If you feel like Fritz 12, then get that. It's not like one will make you a grandmaster sooner.

---

I don't even know what to say

---

 So does it give you the best move(s) in each position?

I have Rybka 4 with the Fritz 12 GUI--that's one of the standard packages. I bought it from Wholesale Chess in the USA (I don't like buying chess software from Amazon) for ~$75.

The only problem I have had with Rybka 4 and the F12 GUI stems from its up-to-date compatibility with Vista/Windows 7. It doesn't play nice with my old ChessBase 8 (designed for XP) that I've used since 2003. Now that I have ChessBase 11 on my Windows 7 machine, everything is fully integrated: Rybka 4, Hiarcs 12 (F11 GUI), Stockfish (free download), Fritz 11 (built into CB 11), and the database software. I've downloaded Houdini (free)--it whipped Rybka 4 in a match--and expect that it too will integrate well, although Kingscrusher mentioned on a YouTube video that he had some problems with program compatibility. I'm planning to spend a week or two with my new CB 11 software before installing Houdini in CB, but I might play with it in Arena before then.

 

Free often costs more than it is worth, but not always. Stockfish has failed to disappoint except that the iPad version won't let me resign. See http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2011/01/chess-on-ipad.html

The only reason to buy fritz 12 or chess base rybka4 is you also get a one year free membership to play online chess  at playchess.com which along with icc is one of the two best  for online chess to play live chess.Myself i poor look for free such as chess.com or fics  which are almost as good of spots to play online chess.another reason to buy fitz 12 or rybka is the gui is very good to download an play all the great free uci chess engines.They also come with a nice large database.If i were you i would buy a used online fritz 9 for average 10 to 15 american dollars then down load the free rybka 2.3 engine which is still stonger than fritz 12 by a few points.learn to download its fun chess base light database the latest free demo comes with the interface to play online the save your money an buy a icc membership.

Yes Proknight, it does.

Fritz gives you the same move as rybka4 about 95% of the time, but Fritz give you the move much quicker.

Steinar adds to the confusion by obscuring that Rybka 4 can be purchased with two entirely different interfaces: Fritz 12, as I had already mentioned, and Aquarium as others had mentioned. As others have mentioned, among the benefits to buying the ChessBase package (F12 GUI) is one year membership on Playchess. Live chess via such servers is vastly superior in performance to web-based live chess, which no where is as good as you'll find here on chess.com. There are many free engines that give Rybka a run for the money, or even beat it, but free engines often have poor tablebase integration. Some will crash on occasion as well. But, such engines as Stockfish and Houdini are worth far more than you pay, and may be worth what you pay for Rybka. The Arena GUI is free, supports these engines, and offers tolerable stability and features.

Isn't Houdini the strongest - and free?

Just need to get yourself an interface and an opening book.

---

http://www.rybkachess.com/index.php?auswahl=Purchase+Rybka

---

Yeah but you don't get it, he doesn't like to download. That's why he needs to pay for much worse programs AND download.

---

The two products in these links are nearly identical--same GUI, same features--except for two things:

1) One has Rybka 4 as the analysis engine; the cheaper one has Fritz 12 (a weaker engine, but these weaknesses are insignificant most of the time)

2) The Viva Media version of Fritz opens slower because Viva Media adds their logo to the start-up sequence

Several years ago I bought the Viva Media version of Fritz 7 for $10 (I already had Fritz 8 in the original ChessBase packaging). The program was whole and complete but took an additional thirty seconds every time I started it. One year of Playchess for $10 was a steal!

I'm tempted to shell out $20 for the Fritz 12 listed here just for the additional year on Playchess, and to add F12 to my battery of 64 other engines.

It depends on what you're looking for. If you just want an engine to give you the best move as you go thru the game, I would simply download the FREE version of Chessbase, called Chessbase Light, and then go to Rybka official website, and download the FREE engine Rybka 2.

Then you just swith on the engine panel, and done! The engine's "thinking" after every move. You can see of course its thinking on that panel. There's even a very cool feature called variant panel, where you can play some moves of the analyzed variation the engine's calculating.

---

Any of the ChessBase packages give you access to the online database, which contains over 5 million games.

I think the GUI is very similiar to each other.  For engine strength Rybka is stronger.  But I do think that now Houdini is a stronger chess engine than Deep Rybka 4.  I have run engine tournaments and Houdini has kicked the hell out of Deep Rybka 4, mind you it was a 5 min + 1 sec.  I am going to run 90+30 games also.

---

I love CB interface, maybe because I've been using it for very long, and I'm used to it. Anyway if you want such a cool and FREE interface, then download CHESSBASE LIGHT, and then you can download lots of database from the net for free.

With regards to Convetka Aquarium, well it seems very powerful, but extremely complicated to use in my oppinion. I think CB GUI is much more friendly.

Fritz 12 is clearly three times as good as Rybka 4.

Simple math.